BLIND GAMES - an exam for a game developer

A recent BLIND GAMES article : THE NEXT BATTLEGROUND IN ACCESSIBILITY led me to speculate about the hostility of the gaming industry to the blind and visually impaired. Perhaps this is due to the fact that a computer game is now primarily understood as a video game, and how can a blind person play video games !? Nonsense, nonsense !!! No, they, of course, can play video games, and even complete them, like Philippe Croison 3 years ago was able to cross the English Channel, but this is more like a feat than entertainment. At the same time, on the other hand, every year there are thousands of new indie developers who want to test their strength.
On Habré there are more than a dozen articles about how a young igrodel describes his trial game project. Some kind of simple game or another clone of a famous hit that crashed against high game standards. At the same time, good art is a necessary component of any successful project. Many developers justify their failures with just bad art, unable to attract an audience, while their own gameplay mistakes and game imbalances elude attention. But the game for the blind, let's call it tifloigroy (from the Greek Typhlos - blind, blind) - an ideal test for the programmer. Here, success depends only on him. From his gameplay, game mechanics and balance. From his ability to understand what the end user needs.

ADVANTAGES

The advantages of the development of typhoid include:

• The independence of the programmer from the artists, on the speed of their work;
• The speed of development and the lack of need to suffer with different screen resolutions, meshes, materials, dynamic lighting, etc .;
• Focus on gameplay, game mechanics and balance;
• Undemanding to iron, in fact, they can go on any hardware with speakers;
• Leveling skills to create introductory levels;
• The ability to add graphics at the end of development and turn it into a full-fledged game.

LIMITATIONS

The disadvantages include only the underdevelopment of the Tifloigr market itself, although according to the World Health Organization , there are about 39 million blind people worldwide and 246 million with poor eyesight. Few games - few players - little profit . Typical vicious circle.
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FEATURES OF DEVELOPMENT

If you look at the fundamental differences between blind and sighted players, then the difference is only in the width of the input data channel. Vision allows you to simultaneously access a large array of data, while allowing the player to respond to several events simultaneously. Until braille gloves are ubiquitous, non-sighted players are forced to use only an audio channel, which by its physical nature is not intended to transmit several parallel signals.
Although in my opinion, controlling the game with the mouse is significantly easier than on mobile devices, since the screen is forced to perform the role of a game controller not inherent to it, but in the case of tifloigr everything is, again, in my subjective opinion, exactly the opposite, due to the fact that players do not need to look at the screen.

ACQUAINTANCE WITH INTERFACE

The first task of the developer is to familiarize the player with the game interface. In this case, you need to follow a few rules:

• Interface elements should be separated from each other at least a small distance;
• Hovering the cursor on the control and / or touching it on the screen should be accompanied by a characteristic, pleasant, short sound effect, so that the player can find out whether he pressed the button altogether and the desired button in particular;
• For games that do not require a quick reaction, it is advisable to perform an action only by double pressing;
• When familiarizing with the interface, leave only one active control active at one time, so that the player can determine and remember its location, as well as its characteristic sound.

And of course the voice! All management and rules of the game should be voiced by the text, you can not slander the text yourself, but build in a voice generator, they are not used to.

CHANGING THE GAME CONDITION

The second key task is to inform the player about changes in the game state, what moves the computer made, what has changed, etc. Here the method depends on the mechanics of the game, and more precisely, on whether there are objects in the game that require a quick reaction from the player or not .
A typical example of a game containing objects requiring a quick reaction from a player is Runner. A player must go through several paths, avoiding collisions, and collecting prizes. Thus, each type of obstacle and prize should have its own sound effect, the volume and / or frequency of which should increase as it approaches. Moreover, the density of such a stream should not be excessive.
Another example might be typical fighting. Each beat must have its own sound effect, hearing that the player will have time to dodge, put a block or make a counterstrike.
You can also do with any games using QTE.

If the game does not require an instant reaction from the player, then when submitting information you can use the technique used when familiarizing yourself with the interface. Those. voice only the type and / or state of the selected object. Then the player can literally touch the game situation. So you can implement card and other board games, puzzles, tactical games, and even turn-based strategies.

Actually, if you think about it, not many game genres are suitable for adaptation. The only thing that comes to mind is jigsaw puzzles and a virtual shooting gallery. It should be borne in mind that, firstly, people blind from birth have a better memory, because forced to constantly keep in mind a greater amount of information, and secondly, have outstanding verbal abilities, and therefore can very quickly perceive spoken language.

To sum up, then typing tifloigry is a kind of exam, a good school, an unfavorable, but kind, noble and useful thing that (who knows?) Can become a small Klondike.

All this is purely theoretical reflections, because there are no blind people among my acquaintances, so I do not pretend to be the ultimate truth, and I will be glad to hear the opinions of those who have more personal experience.

UPDATE. In the comments gave a good example. Game Blind Survivor
The plot is 10/10
Atmosphere - 10/10
Management - 10/10
Graphics - 10/10